Cottage Grove mayor wanted two more commissioners added in Washington County redistricting

Talk about it

Woodbury is Washington County’s largest city -- it may also have its loudest voice.

County commissioners scrapped their favored redistricting plan last week after the Woodbury City Council expressed its unease with a new map that would leave it with representation from just two County Board members. Three-fifths of the board will represent at least a portion of Woodbury.

That move has drawn mild criticism from the mayor of its southern neighbor and civic rival, Cottage Grove.

"I would prefer them not to have three [commissioners],” said Mayor Myron Bailey, who said he would have liked to see representation apportioned out more evenly throughout the county. Bailey added, though, that he isn’t “overly concerned.”

The Cottage Grove mayor did agree with Woodbury officials on one point: commissioners should have more seriously considered expanding the board to seven members, a move Bailey said would have led to a more equitable commissioner district map that better accounted for anticipated population growth over the next decade.

Commissioners voted unanimously to leave the County Board at five members, saying two additional commissioners would have meant more government.

“I think the best thing they could have done at the very beginning of this is go to seven commissioners,” Bailey said. “Seven would have really divided out commissioners among the county better. It really would have made better sense.”

Tags: washington county, cottage grove, elections, government